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December 17, 2013

Merrill Grabs 3 Reps as Raymond James, LPL Each Add 2 Advisors

Meanwhile, Baird picks up a veteran financial advisor in Denver who previously was with Charles Schwab

The wirehouses, national broker-dealers and independent firms continue to share their latest recruiting news ahead of the holiday break and start of 2014.

Daniel Rodriguez has joined Merrill in Coral Gables, Fla., from Wells Fargo with nearly $1.1 million in yearly fees and commissions.

Rodney Woodley moved from UBS Financial Services to Merrill in Davenport, Iowa, with close to $990,000 in yearly production and about $130.6 million in client assets.

Jeffrey Klinger joined Merrill Lynch’s Private Banking & Investment Group in San Francisco. He previously worked for Credit Suisse.

Raymond James' Recruiting

Financial advisors John Quello and Nathan Quello, CFP, who were formerly with UBS, have joined Loft Advisors at First Dakota National Bank, an existing partner bank with the Financial Institutions Division of Raymond James Financial Services (RJF) in Sioux Falls, S.D. They have about $325 million in assets and yearly production of more than $1.6 million.

“We are pleased to welcome John and Nathan to Raymond James,” said Dan Mallard, national sales manager of the division, in a statement. “They are committed to providing a broad selection of investment and wealth management services to their clients, and we look forward to a long and mutually rewarding partnership with them and First Dakota National Bank.”

John has been in the business for 34 years, while his son Nathan came to work in the field 13 years ago.

“We discovered during our due diligence process that what we were really looking for in a firm was one with a more family-oriented, personal feel,” said John Quello, in a press release. “We wanted to be affiliated with a banking institution and yet be a part of a firm with accessible resources and responsive support.”

Baird says Kevin Cross, CFP, is now senior vice president at its Denver wealth management office. His previous work was as a financial consultant with Charles Schwab (SCHW), and he started his career as an advisor with Prudential Securities in 1998.

“We are thrilled Kevin has chosen to continue his career at Baird,” said Steve Binder, senior vice president and director of the Colorado market for Baird, in a press release. “His extensive industry experience and commitment to the highest level of client service makes him an excellent addition to our firm and a great fit for our culture.”

Snook and Housey are based in Troy, Mich., and each has more than 20 years of financial services industry experience.

“We are delighted to welcome Kelley Snook and Paul Housey to LPL Financial,” said Bill Morrissey, executive vice president of business development at LPL Financial, in a press release. “We are pleased to be able to provide the full extent of support services, technology and practice management resources that will help facilitate their growth and enable them to continue to provide high-quality, customized financial advice to their private and institutional clients alike.”

Snook’s retirement plan consultancy, doing business as the RIA Straightline Consulting Group, focuses on corporate-sponsored 401(k) plans, as well as nonprofit 403(b) plans primarily for colleges and universities. His practice supports about $4.3 billion of assets.

“With regulatory changes in recent years affecting 401(k) and 403(b) plans, our extensive work and familiarity with this area has given a boost to our retirement plan advisory business, and “LPL Financial is a natural fit for supporting our growth in this arena,” said Snook, in a statement. “As we looked toward the future, it was clear to us we needed to partner with a leading independent broker-dealer and custodian, endowed with a robust back-office and organizational support structure, which had the flexibility to accommodate the highly customized solutions we deliver to our clients.”

Housey’s private-client practice, which works through the investment advisory firm Flipside Consulting, provides financial planning to clients with $1 million and above in investable assets. His practice had roughly $78 million of assets.

“As our private client advisory practice increasingly serves a high-net-worth clientele, we found that partnering with LPL Financial, with its substantial services and expertise dedicated specifically to this sector, would allow an independent firm like ours to fully compete and win against larger institutions,” Housey said in a statement. “After carefully examining our options, we determined that LPL Financial had both the flexibility we needed and the capabilities to support the growth we envision.”